Mi Seguna Corrida... CON PUERTA GRANDE!!!

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October 18th 2007

Published: October 18th 2007

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tronqui1

Man Vs. Beast

Because I expressed so much interest in the LAST bullfight, my friends got me tickets to another. I got to see a Puerta Grande, or a Grand Exit. The bullfighter was so good that he was carried out of the arena on the arms of the crowd. Its hard to describe a good bullfight from a bad one. Even though they do the same thing in every bullfight, some are terribly boring. The bullfighter´s job is to train the bull to see only the flag and to continue moving smoothly around the bullfighter. Eventually, if the bullfighter has done his job right, he can actually get to within an inch of the bull and get the bull to go behind his back and sides to follow the flag. In a bad bullfight, the bull stops and stares, moves his head funny, jerks his body. In essence, the bullfighter is a teacher, teaching the bull how to move, what to see, and using the bull´s natural style to best train him. There´s just one thing, the student gets killed at the end of the lesson whether he´s done a great job or not.

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Training the bull to see just the capote

A matador has to train the bull to not notice him, to only see the capote, or the flag. Notice this bull hasn´t been stabbed yet...he´s not bleeding. This is when the bull is his strongest and most dangerous.

Picador stabbing the bull

BULL MAULS HORSE!!

Ok, so this picture doesn´t capture what happened, but the bull acually lifted the horse and tossed it with the picador on it. His foot was caught and the horse almost fell on top of him. It looked as though the horse may have broken its back the way it fell, but the little helper men pulled it to it´s feet and it seemed find. THANK GOD IT WAS BLINDFOLDED...it didn´t even twitch when the bull tossed it.